A scoping investigation into governance at An Bord Pleanála has found there were no sufficient grounds to refer matters to the Minister for Housing to determine if there was "stated misbehaviour".
Senior Council Lorna Lynch was tasked in January 2023 with carrying out an inquiry into six governance areas, which involved reviewing 175 case files and interviewing 17 relevant people.
These included both past and current board members and employees.
In a statement this evening the chairperson of An Bord Pleanála, Peter Mullan, said he has received legal advice not to publish the full report but believes it is in the public interest to publish a summary of the main findings.
He said the scope of the report was "not to make final findings as to whether there was stated misbehaviour on the part of a board member".
Mr Mullan said Ms Lynch had to assess whether there were breaches of the board's Code of Conduct, "or other acts or omissions that were not of a minor or trivial nature that were sufficient to refer the matter to the Minister for consideration as to whether they amounted to stated misbehaviour".
He said Ms Lynch concluded that based on the available evidence, there were not sufficient grounds.
One issue that was examined was a board member's involvement as a decision-maker in case files where they were alleged to have been in a personal relationship with one or more employees of the board who were also working on those Case Files.
Peter Mullan said Ms Lynch made a conditional finding "dependent on the period of the relationship in question".
He did not elaborate on what the conditional finding was but said after considering it, the conclusion was "there are not sufficient grounds to refer this matter to the Minister to consider whether there is stated misbehaviour on the part of the board member".
This was decided on the basis that the chairperson is not in a position to investigate this any further, and the board member in question is no longer a member of An Bord Pleanála.
In June 2023, a former deputy chairman of An Bord Pleanála was sentenced to two months in jail after he pleaded guilty to making false or misleading declarations of interest to the State planning appeals body.
Paul Hyde of Castlefields, Baltimore, in west Cork, pleaded guilty to two of nine summonses against him.
